Ford studying indigenous brands for China

TAIPEI: Ford Motor is in talks with local partners to introduce indigenous brands in China as it plays catch-up in the world’s biggest auto market with the likes of General Motors and Volkswagen, its China chief said.

Such a move would see Ford join other foreign car makers in launching indigenous China-only brands, in part to comply with government rules that allow them to make cars on the mainland.

“We are always in discussions with our joint-venture partners,” David Schoch, chairman and CEO of Ford China operations, told Reuters in an interview in Taipei.

“All I can tell you is we are studying indigenous brands, but our total focus in terms of brand enhancement is really on the Ford brand.”

China’s vehicles market, which include cars, vans and trucks, will likely expand by around 5% this year and that pace of growth is likely to be sustained over the next few years.

China’s 2011 vehicles sales stood at 18.5 million.

Ford, which makes its Fiesta, Focus, Mondeo and other sedans in China in a three-way tie-up with Chongqing Changan Automobile Co Ltd and Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp, is a relative late-comer in China, where General Motors and Germany’s Volkswagen have a sizeable lead.

It also holds 30% of Jiangling Motors Corp , which makes Ford’s Transit vans.

Typically, China-only brands use older technology that foreign companies no longer use, enabling them to keep vehicle costs lower and at the same time help Chinese partners learn the ropes in developing and mmarketing modern cars.

Schoch was speaking after VVolkswagen elevated China’s status wwithin its sprawling empire and reasserted control over its wayward trucks brands with an extensive overhaul of senior management on Saturday.

Ford, which avoided a bankruptcy filing and was the only US auto maker not to take a government bailout in 2009, shipped 519,390 passenger cars, including sedans, sports utility vehicles and multipurpose vehicles, to dealers in China in 2011, up 7% from a year earlier.

Schoch said Ford’s car sales in China would outpace the China auto industry’s growth forecast of 5% for this year. – Reuters